Aquatic amusement device

ABSTRACT

An inflatable amusement device used for supporting and propelling an individual across the surface of a body of water having a vertical shaft with foot rests on one end and a water engaging member at the other end resiliently linked to a ring shaped buoyant tube.

United States Patent Newman [4 1 June 27, 1972 [54] AQUATIC AMUSEMENT DEVICE [72] Inventor: Yetty Newman, 910 Park Avenue, New

York, NY. 10021 22 Filed: Dec. 16,1970

21 Appl.No.: 98,726

[52] US. Cl ..9/349, 918 [51] ..A63b 35/10 [58] Field ofSearch ..9/1 A, 347, 349; 115/24.1;

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,130,816 4/1964 Wright ..272/57 E 3,135,978 6/1964 Grasmoen ..9/1 A 3,167,312 1/1965 Blanchard 272/57 E 3,203,694 8/1965 Kobashikawa. ..272/1 B 3,417,415 12/1968 Kozak ..9/307 Primary Examiner-Duane A. Reger Assistant Examiner-Gregory W. O'Connor Att0rney--.lohn F. Booth [5 7] ABSTRACT An inflatable amusement device used for supporting and propelling an individual across the surface of a body of water having a vertical shaft with foot rests on one end and a water engaging member at the other end resiliently'linked to a ring shaped buoyant tube.

1 1 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEDmzv 1972 3, 71 ,988

sum 1 or 2 PATENTfinJunav m2 3, 571 ,988

INVENTOR Fi /77 A Z'W/WAW QMQ, PM

ATTORNEY AQUATIC AMUSEMENT DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to aquatic amusement devices and more specifically to a floating device that enables an individual to bounce on and to propel himself over a body of water by skillful manipulation of the device analogous to the operation of the conventional pogo stick used on land.

Prior art aquatic devices which have been designed to oscillate in water have employed a single buoyant member with attached structure for supporting an individual. To obtain vertical stability, some of these devices require that the user be positioned in the water. Other structures require that some form of ballast be attached to the buoyant member to hold it in an upright position. A few devices lack buoyant stability altogether, which may lead to unfortunate accidents when small children make use of them. Such devices have also lacked means for permitting safe and easy mounting of same by a rider in the water and therefore are useful for only a limited age group of children.

The apparatus of the present invention obviates the shortcomings of the prior art by utilizing a particular arrangement of a buoyant member to achieve a desired degree of buoyant stability not found in the aquatic amusement devices of the prior art. The structure of this invention can be easily adapted for use by children of various age groups by varying the degree of buoyant stability in relation to the degree a particular childs reflexes and sense of balance have developed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention utilizes a shaft which is attached to a buoyant member in such a manner that an individual can be safely supported thereby on the surface of the water. The shaft is resiliently attached to the buoyant member and carries a water engaging member on one end and a handle on the other end. A foot rest is appropriately placed on the shaft so that an individual, by shifting his weight, can oscillate the shaft and, by inclining the shaft, propel himself across the surface of the water.

OBJECTS OF THEINVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an aquatic amusement device which functions in water in a manner similar to the operation of a pogo stick used on land.

Another object of this invention is to provide an aquatic device having sufficient buoyant stability to permit safe operation thereof by children of varying ages.

An even further object of this invention is to provide an aquatic device which is inexpensive and easy to manufacture.

Other objects and many attendant advantages of this invention will be readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 22 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged detailed view of the lower portion of the shaft;

FIG. 4 is a section view taken on line 44 of FIG. 3 looking the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged detail view of an alternative configuration of the lower portion of the shaft.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 the amusement device of the present invention, generally designated 10, floating on the surface of a body of water. The amusement device 10 consists of an elongated shaft 12 with a buoyant body portion 14 and a water engaging member 16 attached thereto.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, the upper end portion of shaft member 12 is provided with a handle portion 18 which may be grasped by the user. It is anticipated that this handle portion 18 may be integrally formed on the shaft 12 or could be attached to the outside surface of the shaft. A foot engaging portion 20 is provided on the shaft 12 to allow the individual to support his feet thereon. This foot engaging portion 20 may also be integrally formed on the shaft 12 or may be attached by inserting a pin or bolt 21 through the shaft, as shown.

The lower end of the shaft 12 is shown in detail in FIG. 3 as having a male threaded portion which engages a female threaded portion 19 in the water engaging portion 16. This water engaging portion 16 is shown in detail in FIG. 4 as having a central bore provided with female threads 19. and a plurality of circumferencially spaced aperatures 21, therein.

As can best be seen in FIG. 3, upper and lower disks 22 and 24 respectively are disposed between the foot engaging portion 20 and the water engaging portion 16. The upper disk 22 is immediately below the foot portion and the lower disk 24 is immediately above the water engaging portion 16. Each disk is provided with a central aperature to allow the ends of the shaft 12 to be inserted therethrough. As shown, the shaft 12 may be provided with radially extending shoulders 26 and 28 for maintaining a spacial separation on the shaft 12 between the disks 22 and 24. It is also contemplated that the shaft could be straight and cylindrical spacer (not shown) utilized to hold the upper and lower disks 22 and 24 in spacial separation. On the periphery of each of the disks 22 and 24 are provided a plurality of circumferencially spaced aperatures 30 and 32, respectively.

Referring in particular to FIG. 2, the body portion 14 is illustrated as comprising an inflatable ring shaped tube 34 which can be made of a resilient material such as rubber or plastic. In this embodiment, the tube 34 has across-sectional diameter corresponding generally to the spacial separation of disks 22 and 24 on the shaft 12.

A flexible envelope 36 is also shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 as being used to connect the tube 34 to the shaft 12. This envelope 36 comprises a belt portion 38 having a top edge 36 and a bottom edge 40. The belt 38 covers the outer wall of tube 34 and has two sets of eight tongues 41 and 42, respectively, evenly spaced around the top edge 36 and bottom edge 40 of belt 38. It is contemplated, of course, that more or less tongues could be used as required by the materials and size of the device. The tongues 41 and 42 surround tube 34 and are provided with apertures 43 and 44 respectively. The tongues 41 are connected to disk 22 on shaft 12 by means of a cord 45 laced through apertures 43 and apertures 30 in disk 22. In identical fashion, tongues 42 are connected to disk 24 on shaft 12 by means of a cord 46; A ring clip (not shown) can be used to secure the ends of the respective cords after the lacing operation is completed.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the tube 34 is flexibly but securely linked at two spaced points on shaft 12. The shaft 12 is thereby maintained in a substantially vertical position by means of the double link. The degree of tautness between the tongues, cords and disks will determine the degree of vertical stability of the shaft. The buoyant stability of the device, of course, will be determined by a proper selection of the size and amount of inflation of the tube 34 and its radial distance from the shaft 12 relative to the size of the user of the device.

The above described arrangement of elements provides stimulating and enjoyable amusement that can be safely utilized by both adults and children. A user can easily mount the device even in deep water due to the stability provided by the inflated tube 34. By placing his feet on the foot portion 20 and holding the handle portion 18, a user can properly position himself above the inflated tube 34. Either by shifiing his depending on the amplitude of the oscillation, will require some degree of skill and sense of balance to maintain. Horizontal movement of the device over the water can be attained by tilting the shaft slightly and oscillating it along the tilted axis. The tilting of the shaft should be carefully timed to coincide only with the down stroke to achieve the maximum horizontal displacement.

While the choice of parts mentioned in the description of the preferred embodiment provides the additional advantages of ease of assembly and compactness for storage, the invention is not limited thereto. For example, an alternative embodiment is shown in FIG. 5 wherein a shaft 12, foot portion 20, disks 22 and 24, and a body portion 14 are similar to those shown in FIG. 2 except for a sphere shaped water engaging portion 48. This sphere shaped portion 48 has a threaded bore 50 into which the shaft 12 is threaded and a rigid flange 52 extending around the outside. The sphere shaped portion 48 can be hollow and buoyant to provide an additional supporting force for the amusement device.

Various modifications are contemplated and may obviously be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claims as only preferred embodiments thereof have been disclosed.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent in the United States is:

l. A buoyant amusement device for use in water comprising, an annular buoyant support member, resilient connecting means, a shaft linked to said support member by said resilient connecting means, and water engaging means attached to a submerged end of said shaft for providing propulsion through oscillatory movement of said shaft.

2. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said buoyant support member in inflatable.

3. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft has foot rests thereon.

4. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft is attached to said support member so that it is held in a vertical position when said buoyant member is floating on the surface of the water.

5. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft has a hand grip portion.

6. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said water engaging means is a disk.

7. An amusement device as defined in claim 6 wherein said disk has a plurality of aperatures therein.

8. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said water engaging means is a second buoyant member.

9. An amusement device as defined in claim 8 wherein said second buoyant member is spherical.

10. An amusement device as defined in claim 9 wherein said second buoyant member has a radial flange extending from said sphere.

1 1. An amusement device as defined in claim 8 wherein said second buoyant member is hollow. 

1. A buoyant amusement device for use in water comprising, an annular buoyant support member, resilient connecting means, a shaft linked to said support member by said resilient connecting means, and water engaging means attached to a submerged end of said shaft for providing propulsion through oscillatory movement of said shaft.
 2. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said buoyant support member in inflatable.
 3. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft has foot rests thereon.
 4. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft is attached to said support member so that it is held in a vertical position when said buoyant member is floating on the surface of the water.
 5. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said shaft has a hand grip portion.
 6. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said water engaging means is a disk.
 7. An amusement device as defined in claim 6 wherein said disk has a plurality of aperatures therein.
 8. An amusement device as defined in claim 1 wherein said water engaging means is a second buoyant member.
 9. An amusement device as defined in claim 8 wherein said second buoyant member is spherical.
 10. An amusement device as defined in claim 9 wherein said second buoyant member has a radial flange extending from said sphere.
 11. An amusement device as defined in claim 8 wherein said second buoyant member is hollow. 